

Houston’s housing market is posting gains from boom levels.

- The number of home
closings recorded by the Houston Association of Realtors®' Multiple Listing
Service (MLS) in '01 was a record 56,980, up 2.6 percent from '00, and the
total value of MLS closings rose from $8.3 billion to $8.8 billion.
- Closings numbered
41,421 in the first eight months of '02, up 6.2 percent from the same period
last year. Continued low interest rates could extend this robust residential
market, but signs of incipient slowing are starting to appear.
- The addition of new
housing in the MLS was a new wrinkle in '99. New homes account for perhaps
20 percent of all MLS listings, introducing significant distortion into
comparisons with sales volumes for earlier years. Also exaggerating the
strength of this year's numbers versus last year's are an expansion in
geographic coverage of the MLS and the new opportunity for individual
sellers to list their own homes on the MLS.
- While MLS home prices
have risen appreciably, they remain a bargain. '98 marked the first time the
median price of resale homes in Houston topped $100,000. The annual median
sales price climbed to $112,000 in '99 and $123,500 in '00, then edged
upward to $125,000 in '01. This June's median price of $135,000, repeated in
July and nearly matched in August, is the highest monthly median to date.
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